MyBackgrounds Blog

While nobody like the idea of more paperwork, having checklists for routine development tasks can streamline projects and prevent errors. 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires is an essential read for any developer. You can’t remember everything, so don’t be afraid to start checklists!

A design questionnaire is a great place to start. Many clients know they need a website, but they have no idea about how it should look or what it should do. Helpful hint – when asking about a client’s likes, don’t forget to ask about dislikes. “I like Google.” is not very useful. “I hate purple and pink, and that Flash stuff is really annoying!” gets you somewhere.

Elaborate headers are popular on sites today, but what about footers? Footers lacking contact information and links don’t help a visitor when they get to the bottom of a page. Often footers are used to cram in the “Oops, I forgot!” elements like calls to action or the one button you forgot in the navigation. Those partying like its 1999 still include keyword lists, invisible text or a list of every city the company could possibly service (pretty difficult when you’re selling on the world wide web).

What should be in your footer? Informative And Usable Footers In Web Design at Smashing Magazine is a helpful checklist of footer items with visual samples to make it look nice.

12 Common Photoshop Mistakes and Malpractice is a great read for expert and new Photoshop users. My biggest Photoshop pet peeve is addressed – not using and labeling layers properly. You never know who may use your original files down the road. Be nice!

Patrick McNeil’s DesignMeltdown.com is a great place for inspiration. Does your site have to be yellow? Retro? Shiny? A forum? Pick a word and get plenty of design ideas for the subject. You can also order Patrick’s The Web Designer’s Idea Book from Amazon.